Question:
Imagine that in the ERP implementation you are involved with, users that are reluctant to get involved with phase 2. What issues, problems and risks, both short and long term, does this present?
My response:
The involvement of the users is a necessity for a successful implementation of any ERP project. The information provided by the user is required by project implementation team to make sure that the project ERP system will serve its purpose. However, the involvement of the users is needed in before, during and even after the implementation. Otherwise if the ERP system is not able to serve its purpose efficiently it will result in employee frustration and they might even reject it at some stage.
It is hard for me to agree that total involvement from the end users is not a must during all the stages of the implementation phase. There might be different issues, problems and risks arising from the users not being involved. A few of them are discussed as the following:
Interfacing:
This is an area which is usually covered in the phase 2 of the implementation of an ERP system. Sometimes, the organizations are quite reluctant about considering the user involvement thinking that interfacing is a technical issue and the IT professionals will take a good care of it by themselves but this does not make much sense to me. Because interfacing sets up connection within two systems to communicate and transfer data in between. The user involvement will guarantee accurate data format and the correct gap in time intervals necessary in transactions was taken care of during the implementation phase. The users are the only ones who know what type of data format they are using and the variety of them in different operations. If users are not consulted it may happen that, data supplied by one system is not compatible by the other one or may result in incorrect billing to the customers of the organization.
Prototyping:
When it comes to prototyping the consultants and the IT professionals create an live environment very similar to the actual system but simulation based to demonstrate the use of live data in various functions and process cycles of the business. This simulation allows the user to see the system for the first time and the users can match their expectations and needs by participating in this process. If the users are unwilling to participate then the consultants will never know what the users were expecting from the system or whether the ERP system is well enough to face the needs of the business. The inputs from the users are very crucial to justify the role of the system according to the business flows, cycles and functionalities. It also makes sure that new problems will not be arising on or after the event of the system going live.
Business process re-engineering:
The involvement of end users is required in business process re-engineering because without taking the inputs from the users there is no way that a business process re-engineering can be brought to a success. Users are needed to be involved because they are the ones who experiences problems when the system goes live and they know about the business more than anyone else. Consulting the users encourages them to adapt a new a system and pass their views on how the business processes can be re-engineered to work more efficiently. If they are not considered as a part of the process and a re-engineered system is offered to them to use they might think there is too much to do with the re-engineered system and reject it at some stage if they are not familiar with it from before.
So, at the end I would again like to mention the involvement of the users is very much important in the implementation process of an ERP system. Organizations which have been successful in implementing an ERP system always had the user involvement before, during and after the implementation process.
